A Miraculous Switch
by ElizabeththeLast
Summary: When Ladybug and Cat Noir go up against a new Akumatized, their powers and costumes are somehow switched. But after they defeat this villain, they mysteriously do not change back.
1. Chapter 1

"Cat! I found him," Ladybug whispered into her yo-yo as she called her superhero partner. Cat Noir was halfway across Paris from her, also on the search for the akumatized villain who had popped up and begun switching people's identities.

"Really? Where are you?" Cat Noir asked from across the device.

"Use your map to find me. He's standing on a roof not far from where I am. He doesn't seem to be going anywhere," Ladybug replied.

"Got it. I'll be there before you can miss the sound of my voice." Ladybug rolled her eyes and shut off the line of communication. His jokes were getting worse by the day.

Regarding the akuma, she would have normally went on the offensive right away, but one, she had little idea how the villain's powers worked, and did not want to worry about a civilian ending up with her appearance, and two, as he did not seem to be going anywhere, she supposed she could wait for backup.

As she waited for her partner to show up, Ladybug studied the akumatized man, who was only around twenty meters away from her. He was facing away from her, crouching at the edge of a building and observing the oblivious Parisians below him. She rarely saw any of the akumatized act so passively, so she was suspicious. He was quite easy to spot, wearing a suit of random, clashing colors. His hands were gloved and in them, he held a fanciful walking cane, which Ladybug had already assumed held the akuma.

After a few moments, she heard a whooshing sound and Cat Noir appeared by her side, slightly higher up on the roof.

"It's about time, I _was_ forgetting what you sounded like. Much to my joy," she ended in a mutter. Then she glanced up at him with a smirk. "Did you get in a fight with an alley cat on the way here?"

Cat Noir responded with a similar half-smirk and ignored her jabs. "Well, what are we planning to do M'Lady? Sneak up on him?" Ladybug nodded and he continued. "Where is he then?"

She went to point to the building across the way but then her finger staggered and she narrowed her eyes, climbing up to the edge of the roof they were on to peer more closely across at the other one. "Wait a minute… He was _just_ over there!" She cried exasperatedly.

The Cat came to stand about a meter to her side, on the edge of the building, when there was the sound of another swoosh, and they both turned to see the evilized villain standing about two meters behind them on the roof. He had a lopsided smirk and what could only be counted as artistic clown makeup on his face. He was also now twirling his cane in his left hand rather carelessly, and Ladybug watched him cautiously. Cat Noir looked quizzically at the man, and then back at Ladybug. He mouthed to her, _"I don't understand this guy's fashion choices."_ But before Ladybug could reply to him in any shape or form, the villain laughed one of those "nothing right now is funny, but I'm evil" laughs.

"I'm so glad to see you two. I was waiting quite a while for the so-called "Heros of Paris" to find me. You're not very quick at your jobs."

The Cat went on the defensive. "Well, it's not like you're doing much."

"I was only biding my time. If you hand over your Miraculouses, I won't make you suffer along with Paris."

Ladybug gave a tilted look. "Uh-huh. And why is Paris suffering?"

"Because then they will know the same pain as I when I was expected to be as perfect as my elder brother! I am New Face, and I will give all of Paris a new face, just so they can know how I feel! The weight of responsibility will overcome them!"

"He's pretty theatric." Cat Noir mumbled critically.

'New Face', as he was apparently called, frowned in a tired manner. "Fine. If you will not give me your Miraculouses, I will just have to take them!" And with one great flourish of his arm, he aimed the tip of his cane towards them and a beam of light shot out. Both Cat Noir and Ladybug dodged just in time, and both went into similar defensive stances with their weapons at hand.

"I'm quite positive the akuma's in his cane! Let's try to get it away from him," Ladybug shouted.

Her black-clad partner nodded. "Of course, M'Lady. That's always the plan." Thus he leapt to action and attempted to pounce on the super villain. New Face had seemingly just as good reflexes as the pair, and he was able to dodge the Cat easily before aiming his cane at them again. Ladybug attempted to loop her yo-yo around the cane and pull it away from the villain, but he shook her off quite easily and then jumped to another roof, knowing they would follow.

With feet pounding along the tile of the roof, Ladybug ran and ran and sprung gracefully over to the next building. She had soared so far through the air that she landed well in front of New Face and was able to cut him off. Cat Noir, figuring out that it would be best to surround the villain, quickly ran up behind the man, trapping him between the two superheroes. New Face scowled as he looked back and forth between the superhero pair. Then, with a quick flick of his wrist, he aimed his cane at Ladybug once again.

"Look out!" Cat Noir shouted, though what New Face was planning was quite obvious, and he attempted to pounce on the villain once again. He was successful this time.

As New Face focused on shaking the superhero off, and Cat Noir focused on whacking the other in the head with his baton, at the same time as he reached for the cane (Cat was always the multi-tasker), Ladybug decided to settle this fight nice and easily. She shot out her yo-yo once again and looped it around the end of the cane, pulling it towards her. However, the villain still held fast and suddenly, out of nowhere, shot her a ferocious grin. The end of the cane lit up, and before Ladybug could even think to dodge, a beam of energy hit her in the chest. She felt frozen as she slumped to the ground, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see New Face toss the surprised Cat off of his back and shoot him with another beam of energy.

Suddenly, her world went black and she felt as if she was being lifted into the air and spun around and around and around. She had no grasp on anything physical, and for what could almost seem like hours, she felt her body whirling around and around. Then, out of nowhere, her body was once again touching the solid ground, and her eyes began to focus on her surroundings, as she was no longer in a black haze. She looked up and saw that the villain was gone for the moment, so she decided to assess personal injuries.

Ladybug first looked down at her hands and gasped immediately. Gone were her red gloves spotted with black, now she wore tight, dark leather. _No! Please don't say I transformed into Cat Noir! I don't want to be Cat Noir. My life will be utterly ruined! That's what happened though, isn't it? That's what New Face did…_

She quickly ran her hands across her face and through her hair, and then frowned. Cat Noir did _not_ have long hair down to his shoulders. So Ladybug glanced over to where her partner was crumpled on the roof. She quickly got to her feet and hurried over to him. And as she approached, she noticed that he was decked out in red and black, yet he had that same head of blonde hair, albeit in a lighter tone.

"Cat?" she blinked down at him. Not very cat-like in appearance, but still.

He shifted and groaned. "That hurt. I don't know why, but that hurt."

As he sat up, she suddenly giggled to herself.

"What?" Cat Noir asked in an exasperated tone as he looked up at her. Then he gasped. "M'Lady…"

Ladybug was wearing the black catsuit of Cat Noir, yet it was still obviously her. Her hair looked like it was a darker shade than normal, and it was no longer tied up in pigtails, but hanging down to her shoulders and tucked behind her ears. Black leather cat-like ears were also peaking out of her hair, and instead of her polka-dotted earrings, he saw in her ears a cat paw symbol that looked exactly like the one that has been on his ring. And Cat Noir, he wore the same suit as Ladybug normally did. His hair was a lighter shade than normal and his ring had black polka dots with a red background now. And the reason Ladybug was giggling at him was because his hair was in a tiny bun, situated at the nape of his neck.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I dunno. I think New Face switched our appearances, but I didn't think this was how it worked. Then he ran off."

"Okay. Well, I guess we should go find him so we can go back to normal," he replied as he stood up.

"Yeah," his partner murmured to herself as she took the baton from her back and looked down at it quizzically.

"What's wrong, M'Lady Noir?" he asked with a cheshire grin as he disentangled the yo-yo from his hip.

She frowned at him for a second. "If you call me that, I'll have to label you as a pesky Cat-bug."

"That's fine for me, M'Lady. What's your problem?"

She looked down at the baton in her grip. "I don't know how to use this. Or your powers for that matter. Do you think they switched too?"

"No idea. But we'll be fine, right?"

His partner stared firmly back at him and nodded resolutely. He pointed out to her how to extend the baton, and with that, she quickly vaulted off the roof and onto the next. It was an awkward landing, but he was right behind her with an even more awkward one, involving him landing on his face.

"Cat, you had seemed so confident about what you were doing," she teased him with a lopsided smile.

"I give you credit, M'Lady Noir. Swinging with a rope is harder than it seems."

His lady shook her head with a soft smirk and then held out her hand to him, heaving him off the ground. Just like he had taught her only moments before, she showed him how to throw the yo-yo as well as how to jump and swing forward on it. Once it seemed like he got it, they both started quickly moving across the rooftops, hoping to find where New Face has gone.

It was surprisingly not long before they found him. Luckily, sort of, there was the sounds of distressed citizens to guide the superheroes to where he was. They hopped down, in plain sight of the villain who was standing in front of the Louvre, rather carelessly firing bolts of energy at different Parisians and switching their bodies, causing them to scream hysterically and run around like headless chickens.

As they had landed right in front of him, he immediately noticed them and stopped paying attention to the few citizens left around him. The villain frowned as he took in their forms, one superhero polka dotted and one clad in black leather. Yet their faces did not match the costumes they normally wore. "That's not how it works!" he muttered to himself.

"I guess you just don't know the extent of your powers. Join us, and we will show you the ways of magic," the Cat-bug quipped with a slight grin across his face.

New Face glared, again, and replied as he lowered himself into a fighting stance. "Oh, I certainly know the ways of my powers. And I can not only switch people's forms; I can also do this!" With that, he aimed his cane at various objects across the square, firing out a few more shots of energy. This caused each to slowly twisted themselves into different forms, and begin to lurch towards the superhero duo as if they were zombies of a sort. A lamp post was twisted into an almost human shape and a garbage can had begun waddling over. Benches, as well as chunks of concrete, street signs, and previous passerby's dropped items started making their way too.

Ladybug and Cat Noir inched closer together as well. "We should end this as quickly as possible!" Ladybug shouted out. "We have to make sure New Face won't wander away, and then you'll probably have to use the Lucky Charm to get that cane away from him."

"Me? Are you sure you can't do it?" Her polka dotted partner asked worriedly.

"Yeah. I feel that the powers switched with the outfits. Do you know how to do it?"

The Cat-bug frowned slightly to himself but then nodded. "Yeah. Okay then. Let's get rid of these walking objects first though!"

And with that, the two superheroes lunged out at the street objects that had slowly begun to surround them. Ladybug rather quickly figured out how to whack enemies away with the baton, and with slight assistance, Cat Noir got the hang of lassoing and throwing things away from himself. There was a handbag, taken from some random passerby and turned into a minion of New Face, and it was flapping mercilessly in Ladybug's face. She continuously beat at it with her baton, but it was able to dodge every time. Cat Noir on the other hand had time to notice that the akumatized villain had almost been lounging off to the side, seemingly with no intent of leaving. The red-clad superhero steadied himself and frowned. Now was no worse than it would be later. And with that, he threw up his yo-yo into the air, and his arm along with it, and shouted the miraculous words. "Lucky Charm!"

And from the sky came falling a polkadotted jump rope. He caught it easily, and Ladybug looked over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, that felt weird. What am I going to use this for?" he wondered out loud to himself.

"Just observe your surroundings! I'll keep the objects at bay, and you just focus on figuring out what to do," his Lady replied.

Cat glanced around until he noticed how perfectly a ledge on a building lined up with where New Face was standing. And if he got all the minion objects that the aforementioned villain had created in one spot, he could tie them up with the jump rope... The villain seemed on guard since Cat Noir pulled the lucky charm from the sky, but he had not moved yet. The superhero grinned to himself and shouted back to his partner. "I'm going to need you to use your cataclysm on that ledge up there, okay?"

"Got it!" Ladybug rushed to the spot and looked to him for confirmation before shouting out herself. "Cataclysm!" And with that, she struck her clawed hand to the brick, which began to crumble and cascade down around New Face, who quickly scrambled out of the way. At the same time as this was happening, Cat Noir had herded the objects into one spot and wrapped both the absurdly long jump rope around them, as well as his yo-yo. He then pulled with all his might and sent the group of street things hurdling at New Face. The villain dropped his cane as he swerved out of the way, a cane Ladybug quickly scooped up as she ran towards Cat Noir.

"Not necessarily how I would have done it, but good job," she said with a smirk.

"M'Lady, do you have to be so crass?" he smiled back as he snapped the cane she handed him in two. Then he whipped out the yo-yo for the last time and smiled at her again. "I've always kind of wanted to do this…. No more evildoing for you, little akuma! Time to de-evilize!"

He smiled again, quite widely, as he caught the akuma and let it go free after it was pure and white. Then he gathered the jump rope from the pile of objects and threw it into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" And everything went back to normal.

"Pound it!" Ladybug chimed happily out loud before she noticed the different fabrics covering their fists. "Wait… _We_ didn't change back…"

Both her and Cat Noir frowned to themselves as they observed their still-switched outfits. Then Cat Noir's ring beeped. All but one of the dots had faded away, and when Ladybug checked her earrings, the same had happened with the paw print. She furrowed her brow and sighed.

"Maybe we'll go back to normal once we change to our civilian forms."

The Cat nodded uncertainly. "Maybe."

"There's nothing we can do now, unless we want to wait for all of Paris to see who we really are," she extended the baton and prepared to lunge out onto the rooftops of Paris. She glanced back at Cat Noir for a moment and gave a little salute. "Bye, Kitty."

"And a good evening to you too, M'Lady Noir," he replied with a smile. Then they both catapulted off into the fading light.

Marinette only just made it to her roof before she detransformed. It felt as if all of the energy she had previously had, had been sucked out of her. All she wanted to do was take a nap. "Tikki, I'm exhausted. It _might_ be because I was fighting as Cat Noir today... Do you know why our costumes switched, and not our appearances?"

She said all of this without looking at her kwami, but when the kwami did reply, her eyes went as big as saucers and she stared at the tiny, black, cat-looking being that floated by her side instead of Tikki. "I know what happened. But I'm not Tikki. By the way, do you have any cheese?"

Across the city, Adrien was staring in half-horror at a very dumbstruck kwami himself. "You're… _you're_ Cat Noir?" she managed to mutter out in the surprised silence. "How are you Cat Noir?!" **A/N: Wow. It's been longer than I hoped it would be since I last posted. Well, I'm here now. I'm hoping to get this finished quickly, but who knows. Expect a chapter in about a week or so, but it's not guaranteed. I hope you like the start though! I was rather excited to start this story. This is another short one, but hopefully it'll be fun. And after this, I have some longer fics planned. But stay tuned! I'll talk about those at the very end. (Also, I apologize for the bad Akuma and lucky charm scene. They are really hard to come up with. Both sufficed for the narrative purposes though.) Oh, also! As of writing this, I have only seen the first episode of the second season and no more, so this will be unrelated to that second season.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey. Girl. Do you have any cheese? I'm really famished. I just got switched to a different miraculous. It was quite exhausting," the black kwami flitted back and forth around Marinette's room as she stared unblinkingly back at him. She probably would not have even made it back inside if he had not darted from the roof, causing her to follow. Every once in awhile he would glance back at her and then look away quickly, focusing his attention on some shiny object in the room.

Finally, Marinette found her voice. "What. What happened?"

The cat-like kwami sighed and flitted back in front of her, crossing his tiny arms over his chest. "Get me cheese and I'll tell you what happened. Don't you know that kwamis need to eat after fighting?"

"Uh… yeah, yeah, okay. Tikki doesn't normally ask for cheese," Marinette muttered to herself.

The cat kwami scoffed. "Of course she doesn't. Tikki wouldn't know fine food if it hit her in the face."

Marinette frowned darkly at the kwami. "Are you fine with brie?" she shot at him.

"Do you have any camembert?" he shot back.

"Eww. No. That cheese is so stinky," Marinette remarked as she wrinkled up her nose and headed towards her bedroom door.

The kwami huffed. "Brie is fine."

Marinette shook her head at the small sprite's foul attitude, but she was back in a few moments with a half round of brie, wrapped in plastic and on a plate. "Here you go. Cat's kwami I presume? At least he's not as huffy as you."

"My name's Plagg," the kwami mumbled out as he nearly consumed the whole of the brie in one bite.

"Well, I'm Marinette," she sighed, crossing her arms and lounging on her sofa.

Plagg blinked up at her as he stumbled over his words. "Uh, yeah, I… yeah."

"Well?" Marinette cocked her eyebrow critically towards him. "You were going to explain? I'm assuming Tikki's currently with Cat Noir. But please, inform me of what happened."

Plagg narrowed his eyes at her till they were thin slits. "Fine. Just give me a second to finish this delicious cheese."

* * *

Adrien was pacing back and forth through his room. Tikki was hovering nearby, eyes glued on him. But she could not say a word. She knew that.

"So Plagg is with Ladybug," Adrien affirmed.

Tikki nodded softly.

"And you're Ladybug's kwami, Tikki."

"Yes," came the quiet reply.

"And because we were transformed, New Face had switched our two kwamis instead of our own appearances, changing only our costumes and powers. And _somehow_ , the Miraculouses stopped you two from switching back when Ladybug fixed everything; or well, when _I_ fixed everything."

"That is true Adrien," Tikki responded.

He stopped pacing and frowned at her. "How do you know me? Does… does Ladybug know me? In real life?"

Tikki grew flustered but came up with a quick solution. "You're… you're a model. I've seen you. So has Ladybug. But… It's nothing more than that. Nothing more."

Adrien came up close to her. His eyes were frowned together. "Please… Do I… Can you…" he cleared his throat, looked away, and started again, staring deep into her blue eyes. "Who is Ladybug?"

Tikki looked away. "I can't tell you. It's against the rules. And, it's for your own safety. So both of you won't get hurt."

Adrien frowned and looked away, something being contemplated in his mind. Then suddenly, Tikki shuddered and fell to the couch she had luckily been hovering over. Adrien was immediately at her side. "Woah! What's wrong?" he asked, alarmed.

Tikki shuddered again. "Nothing... The switch, it just took more energy out of me than normal. I… I just need to eat something."

Adrien blinked and then smacked himself in the face. "Oh jeez, I'm sorry. Normally Plagg hounds me right away about food, but I just didn't think about it. And here I am…" he paused and looked at her with a friendly smile stretching across his lips. "What would you like to eat?"

Tikki smiled back at him. "Cookies, maybe? If you have any?"

Adrien laughed out and leapt up from beside the couch. "Of course! You know, I like you even more Tikki, knowing you don't eat stinky cheese!" And with that, he had bounded out of the room.

* * *

"But we can't find a way to switch you back? Like I'll summon you into my Miraculous and then we go meet up with Cat and switch you guys somehow?" Marinette asked Plagg, though she was staring up at the ceiling of her room, still laying on her chaise lounge.

"No can do. I'm not supposed to be in the Ladybug Miraculous. It would likely harm you, _and_ me if I tried to go back in. I have no idea how it happened in the first place, really," Plagg trailed off.

"So what needs to happen then?" Marinette sighed as she rolled over, onto her side, to better talk to Plagg. He kept looking away from her and rambling to himself, and though Marinette was curious, something told her it was better not to ask.

Plagg flitted closer to her as he better explained the situation. "Everything will be fine, as long as I get back to A- Cat Noir. The only problem is me being in your Miraculous; it doesn't have any negative side effects, or something like that. So, I could just leave now, since you don't want to meet Cat Noir in real life…"

"What? No!" Marinette shot up from her relaxed position. "I mean, I can't just let you roam the city on your own. What if someone sees you? I've lost Tikki before, and it was _not_ good."

"Okay, fine. Then you'll just have to take me to him," Plagg replied.

Marinette gave him a harsh stare. "You know I can't do that either."

Plagg looked at her in a curious sort of manner. "So you're not even curious?"

Marinette sighed, seemingly the hundredth time today, and brought her knees up to her chest. "It's not that. It's just against the rules, and I think there's a good reason for that. It could be dangerous or distracting if we knew who we were in real life. I trust Tikki; I think that there's probably multiple good reasons for us to not find out who our partners are, out of the suit."

"Well, I guess the only option then is to wait."

Marinette looked at him funny. "Are you sure?"

Plagg rolled his eyes. "Yes. You're the one who's insisting we don't do anything. So just go about your daily life, and I'm sure Tikki will find you eventually."

Marinette frowned, but nonetheless dropped the subject and went to get ready for bed.

* * *

Tikki was quietly munching on a cookie, looking around Adrien's massive room. It was dark outside already, and she could not help her mind wandering to Marinette, and Plagg. _For goodness sake, Plagg, please don't let this be one of the times you chose to break the rules, or forget them._ But then again, would it not be easier? Then she would not have to worry about lying to Marinette herself.

Adrien's voice piped up from his desk, and Tikki flew over so they could talk more easily with one another. "And you're sure you can't just fly back to Ladybug?"

Tikki was adamant. "Yes. There's a chance someone could see me. And I don't want to worry about who that would be, or what they would do."

Adrien whirled around on his chair to face Tikki. His face was solemn. "Then why _can't_ we go to her?" He said it more as a statement.

Tikki tilted her head to the side and sighed. "Adrien…"

He cut her off. "This isn't just about me, you know. Yes. I would love to know who Ladybug is under the mask. But this is important to Paris. Akuma strikes happen all the time. What if there's one and Ladybug can't transform? That's not good." Half of Adrien's mind was mocking him. _You know that's a lie. You're just a lonely boy who wants to meet his dream girl; the one person who might actually care about him. Did you ever think that she might not care for you at all?_

Tikki was still firm. "We'll come to that bridge when we cross it. For now, I think it's best if you just go about your life like normal."

"I _want_ a plan. At least, just in case."

Tikki gave him a look hinted with annoyance, but she relented. "Okay then. Well, what if I have you follow a really complicated route around Paris tomorrow? If we go past some of the places where Ladybug usually is, I can slip out unnoticed if I spot her, and you won't find out her identity."

Adrien stared at her, and then nodded. "Okay. Yeah, okay, that'll work."

 _For Paris, at least._

* * *

"Will you quit it? You need to stay hidden!" Marinette hissed to Plagg. He kept popping out of her purse to look around. She was glad that this early in the morning the streets of Paris were not too full of people.

"I'm just curious, okay? Sheesh. I might see A-Cat Noir, you know," Plagg grumbled, though he did duck back down into the purse.

"Okay, yeah, I guess," Marinette sighed reluctantly. "Once we get to the Trocadéro, you can look around as much as you like for Cat Noir."

After not much longer, they had reached the inspirational setting, where Marinette always went to sketch. Marinette felt slightly guilty about doing nothing in this precarious moment except _drawing_ , but she supposed what Plagg had said last night was true. Tikki always knew what to do, and Marinette guessed she had a great plan of action now as well. Anyways, sketching would take her mind off things. And who knew? Maybe Plagg _would_ see Cat Noir. It was likely enough.

As Marinette sat down, facing towards the Eiffel Tower, like she always did, Plagg asked for her to take her bag off and not look at it, in case he saw his Miraculous holder and needed to scurry off without attracting attention.

It felt like Marinette sat there for an hour, coming up with sketches upon sketches for different clothes. Most of them were dorky, but there was some inspiration drawn from the sunlight reflecting off of both the water and the Eiffel Tower, which made a beautiful idea for a shoe.

Then, as Marinette was halfway through trying to work out a green and fluffy jacket, which looked probably too much like a shrub, a middle-aged man came up to her and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "Excuse me miss, I don't mean to bother you, but I just wanted you to know that there's another attack going on nearby, so you might want to get to a safer place."

Marinette's mind went realing. "An... an akuma attack? There was just one yesterday!"

The man nodded sympathetically. "Yes, I know. But with Cat Noir and Ladybug on the scene, I'm sure they'll be able to clear it up quickly again, and we'll all be safe."

"Yeah… Yeah, okay, um… I have to go," She started to gather her things and run off. Before she completely sprinted out of view though, she turned back and thanked the man for the warning.

And once she was in a secluded spot, she looked in her purse. "Plagg. We have a really big problem."

* * *

"You know, I feel almost like a tourist. You're leading me to all those tourist-kinda places," Adrien muttered.

Tikki sighed as she looked out of Adrien's bag at him. She had asked him to take it along so she could escape more easily, without him noticing, when she spotted Ladybug. "You know, the whole point of this is you're supposed to ignore me, so you don't know when I fly out."

Adrien sighed and looked straight ahead as his mind wandered off into a different universe. Soon, the scent of freshly baked bread wafted to him, among other things. He slowed to a dawdle as he took the scent in.

"Adrien?" Tikki's worried voice echoed out from his bag.

"I know, I know. I have to keep going," then he gave her a look. "You know, if you talk to me, I'm going to pay attention to you…"

He trailed off when he noticed the kwami was not paying attention to him. She was looking down a neighboring street with an anxious expression. And as Adrien followed he gaze, his face turned horrified too. At the end of the street they were walking pendicular to, there was an akumatized villain, throwing random food items at citizens of Paris, and cackling maniacally.

Adrien hurried into a nearby alley, where he and Tikki could talk face to face. "We need to do something. _Now_. I don't care what it is, but you need to get to Ladybug before this gets out of hand." Adrien spoke in a solemn manner, and Tikki stared at him in return.

"Okay, just… Just one more place. And then, if she isn't in the vicinity, I'll tell you who she is."

Adrien nodded. "Where to?"

Tikki scrunched her face up in concentration, and then dove back into Adrien's bag. "Head towards the Trocadéro. And be careful that the akumatized doesn't spot you."

Adrien smiled. "Of course." And then he set off at a run.

The food-throwing villain was blocking the quickest path to where the Trocadéro was, so Adrien had to weave back the way he came. As he was about to turn onto another street, across the way, he spotted Marinette. She was heading back towards where the akumatized was. And though Adrien had a duty to Ladybug, he could not let anyone he cared about get hurt. So he yelled across to her. "Marinette!" she stopped and turned towards him. "There's an akuma down that way! Don't go there."

Her face grew a blush and she mumbled out some words that were hard to hear across the street, but sounded like a "Thank you" of some sort. When Adrien made sure she had started in the safer direction, he cut back across another street towards his destination.

With his back turned, he did not notice Tikki slip away. He also did not notice Marinette turn back around and head towards the fray.

* * *

Plagg had heard Adrien. He knew he could not move though, when the two classmates were staring at each other. But after a few moments, he heard Marinette mutter to herself. "Good, he's gone. Never have I wanted Adrien Agreste so out of my life as now."

But before Plagg could slip away, a red streak dashed into the purse with him. "Tikki!"

The other kwami smiled at him slightly. "Hello Plagg." She looked tired, but relieved. "You didn't tell her."

Plagg gave an indignant sigh. "No, of course not. Now, if you don't mind…"

Before he could fly out of Marinette's purse, Tikki stopped him. She gave him an almost sorrowful look. "You _can't_ tell Adrien."

Plagg crossed his arms and faced Tikki. "I won't."

She smiled softly. "Plagg, even though you act lazy and uncommitted, I know that you care for Adrien as much as I care for Marinette. And Adrien, he cares deeply for Ladybug. I would understand why you would want to tell him. But it's against the rules."

"They'll have to find out someday. We're ruining their lives just as much as we are protecting them," Plagg muttered.

"Yes; someday. But we have to keep them safe for now. They're young. They'll figure it out when the time is right," Tikki replied, though her face was unsure.

Plagg nodded slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, I won't tell him. He'll figure it out himself someday. For goodness sake, she looks exactly like Ladybug!"

The other kwami grinned. "Plagg, you _know_ that's how magic works."

"Yeah, I know. It was nice to see you, Tikki." And with that he flitted out of Marinette's purse.

"Nice to see you too, Plagg."

* * *

Marinette noticed immediately when Plagg flitted out of sight. And to her surprise, when she glanced into her purse, there was Tikki. She did not see where Plagg went.

And Adrien, worried at where Tikki had gone, was immediately surprised when he saw Plagg flitting over to him, from the same street he had ran down moments before, to get to the Trocadéro.

"Plagg, claws out!"

"Tikki, spots on!"

And Paris had its superheroes back.

 **A/N: Ach! Sorry guys, this is out a little later than I intended. As you can probably tell, this is gonna be another short, ambiguous story, so there's only one more chapter left to go. Don't worry though, I will be writing more stories as soon as possible, and my next stories will both be longer and end more solidly (I'll tell you guys a bit more once I finish this one). Also, holy crumbs, thanks so much for all the support. I'm glad people enjoy my idea as much as I do. Oh, and just another little reminder; I haven't seen the new episodes, so this may not line up with new information from the second season.**

 **But, I'll see you guys in a bit with the last of it and some info of what's to come!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Wait, didn't we already have a food-themed akuma?" Cat called out from Ladybug's side, as smooth as ever.

It was not his partner who answered him though, but the akumatized himself, so dubbed "Master Chef". "I suppose there have been others like me before, but Paris is a city of fine dining, no?"

"It's a city of lots of things, and we don't want you ruining it!" Ladybug yelled out.

Out of the sack-like bag at his side, Master Chef withdrew a larger than normal baguette and threw it back towards the two superheroes.

Ladybug eyes narrowed as she dodged the loaf. "If one is a chef, one does _not_ disrespect bread."

She whipped out her yo-yo with a fiery passion, and after maybe two more minutes at most, she had the akuma trapped and his item destroyed.

"Well, that was easier than normal," Cat Noir murmured, but he looked like he was not in a joking mood. "So… we need to talk."

Ladybug sighed slightly and nodded. "Yeah, okay. We've got some time."

In a few more seconds, they were lounging on a rooftop, gazing out across the city. Ladybug was fidgeting slightly, probably worried about her Miraculous running out of energy. But this, she felt, was important. Cat Noir was always trying to pry into her identity. She _had_ to get him to see the importance of these masks. And it was likely now or never.

"So today was pretty crazy, huh?" He started out lightly. "Your kwami was this close to telling me your identity. And you know, I was thinking, it was pretty dangerous, right? For you, for me, and for all of Paris. We can't let that happen again."

Ladybug turned to him. "And we won't. Everything turned out fine, and it will the next time too, if something like this ever happens again. Cat, our identities are highly important to keep secret. I know you've wanted to know who I am for a while, but it's frankly no safer than running around Paris in our civilian forms with the wrong kwami. I think… the more we know about each other, the more we'll probably care, and the harder it will be to protect Paris."

"But I already care about you," Cat Noir turned away, to hide his sorrowful eyes. "I barely have anyone in my life. This costume, this is all I have to truly be me."

There was a heavy pause in the air. Ladybug scrunched up her face. _What should I say to that?_ Before she could form any half-appropriate words, he turned back to her and began speaking again.

"What if we know each other in real life? Your kwami seemed to recognize me. And you almost look like someone I know. She goes to my-"

Ladybug cut him off quickly, with a slight scowl. "Cat Noir, stop. You need to understand how dangerous this is. The more people who know our identity, the more danger to them, and to Paris. We can't focus on the real villain if we're too busy protecting each other. Hawk Moth will win if we know each other's identities."

Cat Noir stood up quickly and glared down at her. "I disagree! The more you care about someone, the stronger you are. If we know each other, and care about each other, then the harder we would fight, and the better we would be! I'm not a risk, M'Lady. I can fight for myself. And wouldn't you want to tell the people you love who you were? If you ever want to have a meaningful relationship with anyone, you couldn't lie to them about who you were."

She was taken aback. _Adrien… Would you tell him? No. No, it'd put him in danger. Wouldn't it?_ She steadied herself. "It's best to keep these lives separate. If you mix them together, then something dangerous might happen to you in civilian form. As I said, it's just as bad as what happened today. We wouldn't be able to protect Paris if we got into trouble like that again. No, Cat, we can't know each other. We just can't."

As she got up, prepared to leap off the building and back home, she looked at him one more time. "You can't stop me from telling you who I am." He said, face blank and hand reaching towards the ring on his finger.

She sighed, distraught. "Cat, please. This isn't what I want. I don't know what you life is like, but I can't juggle more problems! Maybe your not a liability, but I am. I'm just an awkward know-nothing girl under this costume. I can't deal with knowing who you are too. Please, if you really care, just leave it at that."

He stopped, looked at her, and then down to his boots. "Okay. Things will stay how they've been. I promise."

"Thank you." And with that, she lept off the roof, and was gone.

* * *

"Hello Marinette."

"Oh Tikki. I'm so glad to see you. Like, _really_ see you. That whole ordeal was exhausting. Plagg was exhausting, running around the city was exhausting, Cat Noir was exhausting, like usual," Marinette cried out, as she flopped on her lounge.

"Yes. It was quite crazy," Tikki replied softly. Then she frowned. "Marinette… are you sure you don't want to know who Cat Noir is?"

Marinette frowned at her kwami in return. "Well, yes, I am curious, especially with all that's been said. I might know him, which would be really weird. But I think us not knowing each other's identities is important. You seemed to think about the same, didn't you?"

Tikki sighed. "Yes, I suppose."

Marinette smiled at her kwami and sat up. "I don't think I'm really ready to bear that responsibility too, you know. It would be harder for me if I knew who he was. It would."

Tikki nodded slowly. "Yes. But, if the time ever comes… Well, I think you two should know someday."

Marinette agreed silently. "But we have to deal with our responsibilities first."

* * *

Plagg was immediately begging for cheese. "I don't suppose you could eat cookies for a change?" Adrien sighed.

His kwami wrinkled his nose. "And Tikki calls _me_ a bad influence."

Adrien scoffed. "I think you _are_ a bad influence." But he got him the cheese anyways, and as Plagg ate, he went to stare out his window. He exhaled heavily after a few moments and muttered to himself. Then he asked Plagg a question, without turning to the kwami.

Plagg narrowed his eyes at Adrien. "Of course I know who she is."

"Could you…. Please tell me _who_ she is then."

Plagg flitted towards the ceiling, away from the camembert he had been eating. "No."

Adrien turned to his small friend. "No? Why not?"

Plagg folded his limbs together. "Because I can't. I'm not allowed to tell you."

" _Why not?_ "

Plagg flitted down towards Adrien. "If you're going to find out who she is, you better do it when she's alright with it happening too. And we both know she's not. You know, if it's meant to happen, it'll happen when the time is right. You're young. There's a lot of time ahead of you. So I'm sure you'll learn who she is one day. Just not yet, and not now."

Adrien half-glared at him, but then gave up. "You're supposed to break the rules, not enforce them with cliche sayings."

Plagg laughed. "Today isn't the time to break the rules. We'll save that for another day. Now, I really am famished, so could you get me more cheese?"

 **A/N: Once again, sorry I took a bit of time with updating (holidays take up a ton of time), and apologies too for the length of this A/N. First, I'd like to thank all of you for the support this story received. I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you liked this ending too.**

 **Now, I know that a lot of people like longer fics that end with less ambiguity, so some of you will be glad to hear that I have some in mind for this fandom. What I'm going to do is, by next Spring, hopefully have the story idea all mapped out and ready to tell (Don't worry, I** ** _will_** **submit a semi-short story, again for this fandom, between now and next Spring).**

 **However, I'd like your help. The story I would prefer to tell is focused around Felix (from the PV) and Marinette (the current version of her) interacting. I have a couple ideas of how I would like to arrange the story, but I can't pick one. So it's up to** ** _you_** **to help me. If you would be ever so kind to look at my profile page, I will have more information there. And if you would prefer to PM me, that's fine too.**

 **But anyways, thank you for the lovely support, and sorry this AN has gotten so long. See you!**


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